It is known that 3-phenylglycidic acid esters are useful as an intermediate for preparing 1,5-benzothiazepine derivatives having pharmacological activities such as platelet aggregation inhibitory activity (U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,188).
It is also known that optically active 3-phenylglycidic acid ester compound can be prepared by permitting a culture broth, cells or treated cells of as microoganisms having an ability of stereoselectively hydrolyzing a (2R, 3S)-3-phenylglycidic acid ester compound to act on a racemic 3-phenylglycidic acid ester compound which may also have a substituent on the phenyl group, thereby hydrolyzing the (2R, 3S) optically active isomer and separating and collecting the (2R, 3S) antipode from the reaction mixture (European Patent Publication No. 417785).